Tom Meade Auto Esotiche 1961 Vintage Men’s T-Shirt

Thomas Meade was an American automobile designer and dealer, best known for his Thomassima series of custom cars based on various makesz of Italian sports cars. He was based in Modena, Italy from the early 1960s through the early 1970s, where he met and collaborated with many Modenese carrozzeria, manufacturers, and mechanics. One day, in Costa Mesa, he spotted the back of a 1957 500 TRC, saying it the most beautiful car he had ever seen. The owner revealed that he bought the car in Italy and that there was a warehouse full of old racecars for sale for pennies on the dollar. Fascinated, Meade decided that he would get his hands on one at any cost and in the autumn of 1960, he left home with just $50 and hitchhiked to New Orleans where he signed on to a freighter heading for Norway, as steward’s assistant. Once he arrived, he crossed Europe and made his way to Italy. Once in Rome, Meade found off jobs, fruitlessly searched for the fabled warehouse during the day. In the end, he realized that the warehouse was only a myth and thus left Rome for Modena, where Italy’s exotic car builders were located… and found the fabled racecars that would be the basis of Tom Meade Auto Esotiche.

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Like all our designs, this one is treated with our signature ‘relic-ing’ process which includes our own secret recipe of hand-painted chipping, cracking, fading, and just the right touch of yellowing to ensure that it looks the part of a true vintage imprint.** We lay these works of art down on premium Bella+Canvas 3001 Unisex Jersey Short Sleeve Tees, one of the softest, best-wearing t-shirts available today, via state of the art direct to garment (DTG) printing which allows us to create a vintage effect that simply can’t be accomplished with other printing methods. In short, these shirts are everything you’ve dreamed of and more – it feels soft and lightweight with just the right amount of stretch making it comfortable and flattering for both men and women.

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Not sure what size is your best fit? We recommend taking one of your current t-shirts, laying it flat and measuring it. The measurements in the chart below are taken with the shirt laying on a flat surface. To get the length, measure from the high shoulder point down to the bottom of the shirt. To get the width, measure approximately 1-inch below the armhole, across the chest, from seam to seam. While our tees are all made using premium, pre-shrunk, ring-spun cotton, there can be some shrinkage depending on your personal wash and dry cycles. With that said, if you’re on the fence, we always suggest going up a size.

All sizes are provided in inches!

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*Heather colors are 52% combed and ring-spun cotton/48% polyester. Athletic and Black Heather is 90% combed and ring-spun cotton/10% polyester. Ash color is 99% Airlume combed and ring-spun cotton and 1% poly. **Due to the nature of the printing process and different sizes of shirts offered, imprint position and scale may vary slightly from the product images, but we do our best to be as accurate as possible.